Captagon?

A cold grey day. In early news, a report that thorough search of Saidnaya prison in Damascus hasn't found any secret underground cell. It's not surprising that such rumours develop about such a much feared place. It said that 60,000 people may have been killed there under the Assad regime. Prisoners were led about the prison blindfolded, unable to build up a mental picture of its internal layout. Those on the outside knowing nothing of people they know were abducted, whether they are alive or dead may imagine such a story to defend themselves from not knowing. The emerging regime promises to bring to trial state security agents or officials responsible for such evil crimes. Some survivors are utterly broken, physically and mentally. What makes such sustained inhumane cruelty possible?

This morning's Reith Lecture with forensic psychologist Dr Gwen Adshead was broadcast from Grendon Underwood Prison, which specialises in dealing with violent offenders who request to be transferred there as they want to understand and do something about the driving forces within themselves which result in their violent behaviour. Some inmates took part in the Q&A after her talk. Research is revealing there is a link between a person's tendency to violence, the environment they were raised in how what violence they may have witnessed or experience. Those who have been abused go on to abuse others, though not all, and that greatly complicates understanding and predicting behaviour and how to change it.

As the programme ended, Clare's study group members arrived, including icon artist Fran, who brought some of her own Christmas cards to sell. I bought two dozen, and went to pay for them on-line, as I didn't have the cash. I was surprised to discover that Santander's banking security procedures have been boosted again. There's now a lengthy interrogation before a one off transfer of funds before payment is allowed, a triage of anti-fraud questions that ensure you know what you are doing, know the payee and know there are their banking details. 

It's good, it's thorough, and warns you that you might not get any reimbursement if you allow yourself to be conned by not adhering with strict honesty to answering the questions. If Fran had bought her digital payment card ready with her it would have been a matter of simple 'tap and pay'. Your mind has to be sharp to answer correctly throughout, not on auto-pilot. I think I'll carrying carrying bank notes for making cash payments in future.

Clare cooked fish for lunch in a creamy garlic sauce, and I prepared the veg,. After we'd eaten I took some time designing a digital Christmas card to go with our annual newsletter. It was a little tricky to perfect, so once more I started walking late and got back home at dusk.

In the evening news about Syria today the new regime promises to tackle the manufacture and illegal distribution of a drug called Captagon I've never heard of before. It's a stimulant related to amphetamine, used by those in need of going without sleep and focusing effort, nicknamed 'chemical courage'. Useful for coping in a crisis or waging war. It was invented in East Germany in 1961, and made on an industrial scale in Syria, as a money spinner for the Assad regime. Addictive properties and side effects, including psychosis and hallucination, but it can be given on prescription to treat narcolepsy and ADHD. In Middle Eastern its abuse as an alternative stimulant arose when cocaine was scarce. Declaring it to be illegal in order to curb widespread abuse, led to it becoming a commodity smuggled across borders, manufacture and production in Syria was tolerated and the Assad clan benefited. We'll see what the new regime does about it.

Owain arrived in time for supper. His office team's new base is in the HMRC building in Central Square. He has an induction meeting there tomorrow morning, which is reason enough to come over early and be at the office without having to get an early train. Normally he works from home and isn't required to visit unless there's a purpose. It's just an occasional commute. We discovered both of us have been watching the Norwegian 'Lykkeland' saga, at more or less the same pace, so we watched the last two episodes of series two before turning in for the night.

Facing a future unprovided for

I was rather slow getting started this morning, as I needed to made a bereavement call and arrange a visit, but made it to St John's for the Eucharist just in time. The visit will be tomorrow morning in Llandough. 

When I got back from church, I decided it was time to pay my contribution to Parish funds, and went on line to our bank account. I was rather annoyed to find that I can't find a way to produce a record of all my previous payments, to figure out how much I should be paying, and had to hunt through the paper version to find the previous entry, among hundreds of transactions great and small. 

The bank keeps nagging me about going paperless. If only clever people on big IT salaries realised it's easier to scan a sheet of paper in hand than scrolling a screen when identifying a single item with no search facility in this section of their website, and do something about it, maybe I could be persuaded to comply.

It took me a while to check my figures and work out how much I should pay. I tend to do this only two or three times a year, rather than use a simple standing order. This allows me to adjust the amount we give to take into account rising running, and the need to contribute for special purposes. So far, I'm in a position to give more as I earn extra from locum duties. I'm happy that's how it is for the time being.

We had a tofu stir fry with rice for lunch, one of Clare's specialities which I helped her prepare. She went to the CRI for an x-ray after lunch. I followed her into town, to bank a cheque, and we met in John Lewis' for a drink before returning together on the 61 bus. I was going to buy a discounted Lumix GX80 camera, but when I enquired about it, found that the packaging and accessories were no available, so the displayed item could not be sold to me. 

The same thing happened with another discounted Lumix camera several months ago. Why on earth display the camera when no stocks are left, no more are expected to arrive in-store and the display camera is deemed unsaleable? Something's wrong here. It's bad enough that the sales person knows nothing about cameras and tries to sell you one that's totally different from the one you've stated that you want. No wonder 'The Partnership' doesn't do as well as it used to when service standards are lowered.

After supper I made a few phone calls to contact bereaved families. Mother Frances asked me to cover yet another funeral this afternoon so I'm preparing one a week in the next three weeks. That's eight altogether since returning from Spain. A consequence of full time clergy shortage. My friend Rufus is far sighted in retiring early from his part time job to develop a specialist pastoral ministry to bereaved families outside the church in areas barely covered by understaffed Parish clergy with many other duties to cover. If only it were possible to establish a guild of ministers, lay and retired clergy which trained to the same standards, and were willing to be deployed over a wide area, to wherever there was a need, and funeral directors find local clergy are not available. It would be necessary to have a protocol so that working clergy and guild members treat each other as partners and share information so neither rivalry nor resentment can arise.

It's a problem that established churches often see themselves as proprietors of the realm of pastoral care, and fail to acknowledge the depths of the gulf between themselves and grass roots secular community. In his early days as Pontiff I recall Pope Francis expressing fraternal warmth towards religious leaders of the Anglican, Protestant and Pentecostal communities in Latin America, valuing their missionary enterprise and seeing them as 'Partners in the Gospel'.  Many would agree with him, but there are still some people in leadership, quietly dissenting and disregarding changes that have taken place in the past half century. 

News of the return of the Pacific 'el nino' ocean current phenomenon threatens to exacerbate the impact of global warming in the next couple of years. The rate at which polar ice caps are melting increases faster than predicted, suggesting we are now past the feared tipping point after which damage to environment and species loss is irretrievable. Yet another case of people in power dissenting and disregarding well documented changes and insisting on interpreting them differently (for their own economic benefit). The ancient biblical truth that unless we repent of selfishness and greed we'll be punished and destroyed is as relevant today as it was two and a half millennia ago. For half my life I have been preaching about this possibility to deaf ears, sad to say.